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Puno - Lake Titicaca

By the southeast side of Lake Titicaca , 2860 meters above sea level, an attractive and entertaining city.

The characteristics of Puno is that you get a feeling of a magnetism coming from the surrounding mountins, its lake who looks more like an ocean, and their people, descendants from the Aymara-culture, a strong people who once ruled the highlands.

Before the expansion of the inca-empire, the area which today is Puno, home to the Tiahunaco-cultur. It is proved by arqueological evidencese that the extinct culture was a part of the Aymara-cultures historical development. Puno was, acording to the myths,the origin of the Inca-civilisation as well.

The myths said that the first inca Manco Capac rised up from the surface of Lake Titicaca , by orders from the God of the sun to establish the inca-empire.

Puno is most famous for its coloful folkloric traditions, and it hosts the most livelytraditonal parties on this part of the continent.

The most important one is the celebration of Virgen de Candelaria , held in Februar.

On the world biggest navegable lake, Lake Titicaca , the most fascinating is their people living on the islands. They let you participate in their culture and live like them. There are many different cultures on the different island, and the most distinctive is the population on the floating Uros-islands . They decided hundred of years ago to separate themselves from the mainland because of discrimination, and they made their artificial island of rush on Lake Titicaca. On the floating islands they lived basically of fishing, and interchanged with other needs with the mainland.

On the Island Taquile , there is a culture where everybody work for the community, and they have socialistic rules and laws, that in some cases are different than the national peruvian laws. On most islands the tourists are not allowed, but on some of them it´s perimitted for the tourists to stay overnight to get to know the indigenous cultures that barely has changed the last centuries. We can promise you a cultural experience totally different, and most people do not want to return to our globalized world after the stay.